Today, we have a comprehensive list of various sample essay prompts to consider.  You are going to see a lot of these during your academic career.  Beginning in middle school, going on through high school, and even when you get to college, your teachers and professors are going to hand out essay writing prompts like candy.  You might prefer a lollipop or a pack of smarties, but trust, they are not doing this to torture you.  The writing habits you begin learning in middle school really are going to help you later.  The fundamental elements of personal essays, argumentative essays, and descriptive essays – the styles most commonly seen during your early school days – are going to show up again and again, in term papers, research papers, and even dissertations.

Of course, sample essay prompts do not have to be assigned.  Why not practice on your own?  That may sound crazy, but essay prompts can actually come in handy in a number of ways, with a number of assignments.  Just as a for instance, think about your college applications.  You are usually asked to write up a personal statement – basically, a personal essay, which is also known as a narrative.  Sometimes it may be related to your major, what you want to do with your life, or why you want to go to that specific institutions.  Other times, it might be completely random.  Such prompts can show up on the PSATs and SATs as well.  So, why not take a look at some sample personal essay topics?  At the very least, they can even help you with writer’s block.

Personal Sample 1: Just about every student has been caught unprepared for a big, important exam at one time or another.  Maybe you were sick, maybe you were away, maybe you were busy with other school work – whatever the case, describe a time when this happened to you.  Did you wing it or explain your situation to the teacher?  How did you do?

Personal Sample 2: Pick out a very vivid moment of your childhood and describe it with as much detail as possible.  Make your readers understand why it is so special and/or important to you.

Personal Sample 3: Think about a goal you have had in the past and explain to your reader exactly how you reached it.  Make sure you describe why doing so was so important to you.

Next up are some sample essay prompts in the form of argumentative topics.  You will likely be given a lot of persuasive papers as you go through school, so you definitely need to learn how to form arguments on paper.

Argumentative Sample 1: Do you think that the problem of domestic violence in the United States is being exaggerated, or do you think it needs to be taken more seriously?  Why?

Argumentative Sample 2: What do you think about animal testing?  Is it human to use them for scientific research, or inhumane?

Argumentative Sample 3: What are your feelings on people using cell phones in public?  Do you think they should be banned in malls, restaurants, et cetera?  Why or why not?

Now, let’s have a look at some samples for descriptive papers.  Descriptive essay prompts give you a chance to be really imaginative and, as such, are great exercises for both academic writers and literary or non fiction writers.

Descriptive Sample 1: Think about your favorite place in the world and describe why it is so special.  What do you do there?  What does it look, smell, and feel like?

Descriptive Sample 2: What is your favorite season?  Why?  What is your town like during that season?

Descriptive Sample 3: What teacher has affected you the most?  Why was he or she so memorable?  How and why did he or she inspire and/or affect you?

As you can see, sample essay prompts are beneficial with any number of subjects.  More importantly, they pop up where you least expect them.  They also show up on some of the most important exams we will take in our lives, and on some of the most crucial documents.  You never know which kind you are going to get, and any way, they truly do help later in life, when you have moved from essays to research and term papers.

Believe it or not, there is a direct and special correlation between descriptive essay prompts and term papers – particularly descriptive ones, of course.  In order to understand that connection, we naturally need to know the core requirements of each paper.  Examining the fundamentals of each style of paper reveals the less subtle similarities.  Some of the benefits are quite obvious, however.

For example, clearly prompts will be able you to craft an excellent descriptive term paper, by virtue of being familiar with and having foreknowledge of the format and style.  You generally receive prompts – persuasive and otherwise – during your middle school and high school years.  It is tempting for college students to look back at the work they did during those years and dismiss it as kiddie stuff.  However, your high school teachers especially are preparing you for the whole, meticulous, detailed process of term paper writing.  When they give you prompts, they are basically giving you examples to follow.  You will learn exactly the kinds of things you need to answer and the exact questions you need to ask to create a good college term paper.  From there, you will learn how to create sound, solid thesis statements.

Now then, let us discuss what descriptive essay prompts are – their design, their purpose, et cetera.  Succinctly, a descriptive prompt is, of course, demanding a descriptive essay.  These simply need to describe a person, a place, a thing, et cetera, in vibrant and vivid detail.  The essay needs to be so detailed that your reader will be able to form a likewise dazzling image of what he or she reads.  Intriguing comparisons, rich and imaginative language, the ability to paint a picture with words – those are the components of a descriptive essay.

A descriptive term paper follows that same idea.  Even though it is a term paper, you are allowed to evoke the reader’s senses when you describe your subject.  Sight, touch, scent, hearing, taste, and their emotions – you can try to touch everything with your writing.  As you can imagine, you have a wider scope of possible term paper ideas as well.  Here, even when presenting facts, you have permission to paint a literary picture with your words.

This is not precisely like traditional, more technical term paper writing.  For instance, these term papers can be either objective or subjective.  Generally, you will be able to decide for yourself.

Descriptive papers are extremely popular in college literature classes these days, along with a number of others.  By having a strong background in and experience with writing descriptive essay prompts, you are getting a jump start on your grade point average.

More importantly, descriptive essay prompts provide you with the resources necessary to later come up with interesting custom term paper ideas on your own.  Granted, a college term paper is much different than a high school essay, but every really good idea is quite simple at the core of things.  Even the theory of relatively started out as a simple math equation; once upon a time, flying was just a physical theory.